Middle East expert Juan Cole is very impressed with the president.
Barack Obama continues to shake up the world with his new ideas, demonstrating himself again among the more creative and bold leaders the world has seen in the past half-century.
In Obama’s words:
. . . Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st. And as a nuclear power -as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon - the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it. So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.’
According to Cole:
But while commentators say these things all the time, seldom do politicians dare be so frank and so decisive. I believe that only in retrospect will historians come to see the true, pivotal significance of Obama’s epochal speech.
The logical conclusion is that Obama not only wants Iran to cease its nuclear enrichment program (which may not now be aimed at making a bomb, but could one day be used for that purpose), but he also wants Israel to give up its nuclear arsenal of 150 warheads. Since Israel’s stockpile provokes the Middle Eastern arms race, which in turn contributed to the outbreak of the Iraq War, were the Middle East to become a nuclear-free zone, it would become a less dangerous place.
The U.S taking responsibility is one thing; convincing Israel to give up their nuclear weapons, quite another. If somehow Obama does manage this feat even Cole’s adulations will seem inadequate.
